Written by Ron Harris
08 December 2020

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Rescue 911! Build More Muscle

10 Ways to Revive a Dying Workout

 

By Ron Harris

 

My daughter asked an interesting question the other day – do you ever have bad workouts? Maybe it would have sounded supremely hardcore if I grunted back, “hell no, I smash that shit every time and always have!” But that would make me a liar. Since I started training in 1983 and thus have logged well over 10,000 workout sessions, there have certainly been more than a few that weren’t spectacular. In nearly all cases, the reasons came down to either not eating enough, not sleeping enough, being sick or injured, or being preoccupied with work, money, or relationship problems. That’s real life for all of us. But there have also been plenty of times when I “just wasn’t feeling it.” I’d get in the gym and start the workout, but it never really felt like I was accomplishing anything. Those are the times when something needs to change fast to salvage the workout. Here are some tips that have helped me do that over the years that you can use to slap the defib paddles on the chest of your dying workout and shock it back to life before it bites the big one.

 

1. Go for a Pump

One of the most common motivation killers is when for whatever reason, your strength is down. Suppose you can normally squat 405 for 10 reps on your heaviest set, but today 315 feels like it’s crushing you. Talk about disheartening! Even the best of us can feel frustrated and like a failure. Rather than bitch and moan about how you’ve suddenly turned into a weakling, turn the lights on and shut your pity party down. Strip the bar down to 225 and try to get four to five sets of 20 reps without resting more than 90 seconds between sets. Do a couple of giant sets of leg extensions, leg press and walking lunges for 20 reps each. There are many ways to make less weight feel just as heavy as your normal resistance, such as drop sets, supersets and FST-7 (seven sets with the same weight, resting only 30 seconds between sets). Forget about how much weight you’re using and just pump the target muscle up like a balloon. I guarantee you won’t feel like a failure anymore, and you will probably get some fresh gains out of it. Nobody is at their strongest every day, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have a great workout.

2. Focus on One Exercise

We all get tired of training to one extent or another at times. Say it’s back day, and the thought of slagging through six to eight different exercises makes you want to lie down and take a nap. On a day like that, pick just one basic movement, like chins, barbell rows or deadlifts, and hit it for 10-12 working sets. That’s it; after that you’re done! I got the idea for this from a discussion I had with Evan Centopani years ago where he told me there were chest workouts where he simply did as many as 10 sets of barbell bench presses, or back workouts that consisted entirely of 10 sets of barbell rows. Focusing on just one movement for the whole workout will make it far more bearable, and you will still do justice to the muscle group in question. Keep in mind that the basic barbell compound movements are what have built the most size and strength for all people who trained with weights over the last 80 to 90 years. You’re not having a subpar workout if you devote an entire session to working hard on one of those. You’re probably being more productive than usual, especially if you’re like a lot of guys who have gravitated away from movements like these in favor of more isolation movements and machines. Speaking of machines …

3. Use All Machines

Many times, if you’re having a crappy workout with barbells and dumbbells, an easy fix is to make it a machine day. You won’t have to worry about balancing any weight, and you can simply focus on attacking a muscle group. Don’t make this a habit of course, as free weights are the best tools for both mass and strength gains. But on those rare days when your get-up-and-go has got up and gone, head for the machines. Even better, make it a point to try at least one machine in your gym that you’ve either never used, or only tried once. You might find you didn’t give it a fair chance before.

4. Set a Time Limit

How much can you get done for a muscle group in just 20 minutes? I bet many of you believe it would be a waste of time to even attempt to train in such a brief span of time. You’d be surprised to see that far more can be accomplished that quickly than you ever imagined. One way to trick yourself into having a good workout on an “off” day is to set a time limit of 20 or 30 minutes for its end. If it’s 4:00 p.m., you must leave the gym floor at 4:30! This will force you to hustle, but in a sense, it will also be a relief if you’re dreading your usual 60- to 90-minute session. You know it will all be over, and you’ll be headed out the door soon. You will move fast with very little rest, building up a nice sweat and a solid pump in the time you normally might be starting your second exercise of the workout.

5. Train Something Else

This will seem the most radical solution for most of you, because the order of your training split is probably something you hold sacred. But if it’s chest day and you can tell by the end of your warm-ups that it’s just not happening, why not do shoulders or arms instead? As with the machine solution, this can’t become a habit or else some of you will end up skipping every leg or back day, but on rare occasions, break the rules and train something you have more enthusiasm for. Chances are it will be a body part that’s a strong point for you and that you therefore love to train, and that’s OK.

 

6. Hit a HIT Session

Much of the time when your motivation is lagging on a given day, it’s not so much that you don’t want to work out at all. It’s more that the idea of doing your standard three to four working sets of anywhere from five to 10 different exercises seems like it will be akin to slogging a few miles through 2-foot snowdrifts – just tedious. On a day like that, forego your typical volume workout and make it a high-intensity training day instead. Warm up as much as you need to for each exercise, but perform only one work set to failure. Knowing you only have one “real” set of each exercise will spur two effects in your mind. One, you know you will only have one chance to stimulate growth from each exercise, so you will dig deep and find the energy and intensity to pull that feat off. Second, there will be a sense of relief and even gratitude that you only “have to” do one set. You’ll wind up having a productive workout after all, and you’ll be out of the gym and on to the rest of your day or night in a fraction of the time.

 

7. Make It An ‘Odds and Ends’ Day

You know all those things you just never seem to have time for, like abs, calves, forearms, and cardio? If the thought of hitting whatever body part you were “supposed” to hit that day fills you with dread, forget about the previous plan and take a day to work those neglected areas. Since most of us, if we’re honest, are big slackers on one or more of them anyway, this is a blessing in disguise.

 

4 Times When You Really Should Skip the Gym

 

1. You’re Sick

While it’s admirable that your dedication is so indefatigable that all the devils in hell couldn’t keep you away from the gym, you need to temper that zeal with some common sense. If you have a simple cold with some sniffles, you’re probably fine to go train. But if you’re battling some nasty virus or infection, or hacking up gobs of green slime, your ass needs to stay home, rest up, and get better. Remember that training puts stress on your system. If it’s already under stress trying to fight off an illness, you’re asking too much of your body. Besides all that, you are possibly putting other people at your gym at risk of catching whatever it is you have. As someone who has contracted both pink eye and something you would only wish on your very worst enemy called clostridium difficile or “c.diff” for short at the gym, I will be the first to condemn you as an asshole if you spread your sickness at a place people go to improve their health and fitness.

 

2. You’re Tired

I’m one of those people who seriously can’t function well either physically or mentally without a minimum of six hours of sleep. We all have varying sleep needs that aren’t always the standard eight hours most humans find optimal. I know you can use stimulants to boost your energy long enough to power through a workout at those times when you were up too late or just couldn’t sleep for whatever reason. That’s fine if you’re just moderately tired. If you’re truly exhausted, perhaps you’ve even been awake for 24 hours or more, your best bet is to forget about the gym for today and come back tomorrow once you’ve had a good night’s rest.

3. You’re Injured – Badly

Most if not all of us have trained around injuries. If we didn’t, we would have missed sizeable chunks of training time. It’s fine if you truly can work around the afflicted area, but there are injuries so severe that the smart thing to do would be to avoid weight training until you get it treated and hopefully healed. The lower back and neck are two such areas that are virtually impossible to “work around” without the risk of exacerbating the injury. A severe hernia would also make it inadvisable to train. You’re not being a hero if you “train through the pain” in cases like these. You’re being an idiot. Fall back, retreat, and live to fight another day.

4. You’re Avoiding Problems

The gym can be our shelter and our refuge, a place where we leave all our personal problems at the door and focus on pumping some iron instead. Yet there are times when there are pressing issues in areas like finances, jobs, kids and relationships, among other things, that need to be addressed and handled as soon as possible. If deep down you know this is not the best time to turn your back on a situation to go lift weights for a couple of hours, listen to that voice of reason. Deal with whatever needs to be dealt with, and then you can get back to your lifting.

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Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 5,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989. He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area. Facebook Instagram

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